Worst Stories

well, the story that has always stuck in my craw happened about 1974 when I was 12. The closest coin shop was over 25 miles away and when I would get thereI would buy a few circulated wheat cents or low grade Indian cents. One dqy he had an 1877 Indian head marked as Good for $60. I may as well have 6 million, but I could dream.

Well a few days later my mother decided she would help my collection by nuying a series of "coins" the mint was putting out called America's first Medals. Agroup of 10 or 12 round things a little larger that a silver dollar made from some old cooking pot metal of some kind for around 100 dollars.

Well I begged her to buy the Indian cent instead as I collected coins not whatever those things were. Well as you can imagine the argument end with mother doing what she thought best and buying those things wich she assured me would be worth far more in the future that any little penny.

I still do not have an 1877. oh well.

9 karats, ewwww... ;) A "solid" steal!

--passing up a coin that I think is lame and looking it up on the internet just to see it being rare
--overpaying for coins that I found elsewhere later on for cheaper
--overpaying

I have a few of them. One that sticks out was purchasing a "junk drawer" lot on ebay with blurry pics and a description that included the phrase "silver included". I received a bunch of worn wheaties, a clad spoon, and something like a thimble or something. Moral of the story, scotch and late night bay trolling do not mix. My other bad experience was buying a "gem uncirculated" Peace dollar from Amazon. I think it was like $40 at the time. I received a polished Peace dollar with a lot of wear. Both of these purchases were made when I had just begun collecting, thankfully I have learned my lesson since.